Genetic Knowledge within a National Australian Sample: Comparisons with Other Diverse Populations.

BACKGROUND: Genetic knowledge, which plays important functions in our understanding of science, health, social groupings, and even behaviour, has been evaluated in past studies with various populations. This wide reach of genetics means that different types of items are used to assess genetic knowledge, which restricts meaningful comparisons across time- and locale-based studies. AIM: The present study addresses this limitation by recruiting an Australia-wide sample and evaluating their genetic knowledge using items sourced from four diverse samples. METHOD: Seven hundred and eighty Australians completed a variety of items assessing their genetic knowledge as well as several demographic indicators. RESULTS: The results show superior overall genetic knowledge in the current sample compared with previous samples. Additionally, the study finds that genetic knowledge about health and illness seems to be the most accurate, whereas such knowledge about social categorisations and behaviours seems to be the most error-prone. In the current sample, being a female and having interest in genetics were positive predictors of genetic knowledge; surprisingly educational attainment was not a significant predictor. CONCLUSION: Compared with previous surveys, the current sample showed significantly better genetic knowledge. However, certain areas that relate to public understating still indicate rampant misperceptions.

Born this way: Sexual orientation beliefs and their correlates in lesbian and bisexual women.

In this study, we examined how beliefs about the nature and origin of sexual orientation were associated with sexual identity outcomes, namely internalized sexual stigma and sexual orientation uncertainty, and in turn, psychological well-being in sexual minority women. A community sample of 393 lesbian and 205 bisexual women were recruited for a cross-sectional online survey. Using multigroup structural equation modeling, we examined whether believing sexual orientation to be inborn/immutable (i.e., natural) and/or as existing in discrete categories (i.e., discrete) was indirectly associated with psychological well-being via internalized stigma and sexual orientation uncertainty and whether some of these relationships were moderated by nonprototypical attractions (nonexclusive same-sex attractions in lesbian women and straight- or lesbian-leaning attractions in bisexual women) and age. Overall, similar patterns of direct effects were observed in lesbian and bisexual women. In both groups, naturalness beliefs were associated with lower internalized-stigma, whereas discreteness beliefs were associated with greater internalized stigma. In bisexual women, nonprototypical sexual attraction patterns moderated the relationship between discreteness beliefs and sexual orientation uncertainty. Younger age was associated with increased sexual orientation uncertainty in both lesbian and bisexual women. Specific to lesbian women, nonprototypical attraction predicted less endorsement of immutability and binary/discrete beliefs about sexual orientation, and unexpectedly, greater internalized stigma. The present study identifies potential implications of common lay theories of sexual orientation for lesbian versus bisexual women. (PsycINFO Database Record

Are all ostracism experiences equal? A comparison of the autobiographical recall, Cyberball, and O-Cam paradigms.

In the present study, we aimed to compare the primary-need depletion elicited by three common ostracism paradigms: autobiographical recall (e.g., Zhong & Leonardelli in Psychological Science 19:838-842, 2008), Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79:748-762, 2000), and O-Cam (Goodacre & Zadro in Behavior Research Methods 42:768-774, 2010). A total of 152 participants (52 males) were randomly allocated to one of the three paradigms, and their subsequent primary needs were measured (belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence). O-Cam was found to induce greater total primary-need depletion than did Cyberball and recall, which did not differ significantly from each other. Moreover, when examining the pattern of individual need depletion elicited by each paradigm, O-Cam was found to induce significantly greater depletion of belonging, control, and meaningful existence than did the recall paradigm, and significantly greater depletion of control and self-esteem than did Cyberball. No other comparisons were found to be significant, including the comparisons between the recall and Cyberball paradigms for each individual primary need. Collectively, the findings will assist ostracism researchers in making informed choices regarding (a) which paradigm is appropriate to implement with respect to their research aims, and (b) whether the interchangeable use of paradigms within a program of research is appropriate practice.